THE Oscars race will enter the homestretch after this weekend, when two key awards may help predict the top winners on March 24.

The Directors Guild of America awards Saturday night – the most highly accurate predicter of the Best Director and Best Picture races – is being closely watched to see which way the incredibly tight competition between “The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring” and “A Beautiful Mind” is swaying.

More eyes will be on the televised Screen Actors Guild awards Sunday night, to see how recent controversies have impacted the hard-fought Best Actor race between Russell Crowe and Denzel Washington.

What’s on the line is millions of dollars of extra pay and the clout to green light almost any movie they want.

Only Tom Hanks, Mel Gibson, Harrison Ford and Julia Roberts have that kind of power now – and an Oscar win may help Washington or Crowe join that elite crowd.

Two years ago, Washington was considered the front-runner in the Oscar race for “The Hurricane” – but a loss to Kevin Spacey for “American Beauty” at the SAG awards was the tip-off that the same thing would happen at the Oscars.

This year Washington is up again, for his brilliant playing-against-type as a corrupt cop in “Training Day.”

His supporters – including Roberts – who think he was robbed two years ago, are playing the race card, suggesting a subtle form of racism has kept him from becoming the first black actor to win the top acting award since Sidney Poitier a generation again.

While they have a good point, it’s a very risky strategy – but Washington may have been helped by Crowe’s loutish behavior.

Crowe, who’s up for “A Beautiful Mind,” has apologized for roughing up a British producer because part of his acceptance speech at the British Oscars was cut for the television broadcast.

But it’s still an open question whether the apology will play as sincere – or as a calculated political move.